Ms. ONE-derful!

Hazel is ONE year old! I don't think I'm the first mom to say, "It's flown by!" Honestly, it did not fly by in the beginning. It was probably because Hazel and I hung out at home most of the day with feedings every few hours and days and nights all confused. Now that I look back at her monthly photos, I realize how quickly she's grown... and it makes me sad. Although each stage gets better it seems and it's so fun to watch her grow, I still always want her to stay my baby. I'd be happy if we could freeze time at this point. 1 year olds are the best. She just learned to walk a few weeks before her birthday (and she tests her balance by carrying balls or by drinking water on the go); she speaks the cutest baby jibberish, she says "ball" about 500 times a day, she loves "num, num" (food) - any kind, anytime, anywhere; she loves water, she loves her freedom and refuses to be forced to do anything (uh oh - I can't even get her to hold my hand), she has a pretty good dinosaur screech/squeal; she has always disliked her car seat (again, she can't stand to be restrained, but facing forward has helped); she's never been much of a sleeper (she sleeps 11 hours at night and one 2 hour nap on a good day); she loves her paci; she doesn't like real milk... yet; she has the best baby hair ever (she likes to play with her own and likes to yank mine); she has James's body type and his turned out feet (belly not included); she squeals every time she sees an opening for the stairs; she has 6 big, hilarious teeth; she has the best laugh, and she's ticklish everywhere; she still has the cutest rolls and little badonkadonk; she is fascinated with animals; she has the best sense of humor and gets my silliness; she'd still rather be held all day even though she can walk; she uses her crib as a baby trampoline; she's strong and smart; she knows exactly what she wants (which is weird since she came from 2 indecisive parents); she loves the library and books (as long as they're fast paced); she speed reads (she likes flipping pages back and forth, over and over); she always has an opinion when I give her choices for things; she loves music, but she does not like if I practice the piano; she charms everyone at the store; she points at everything (I must point a lot...); she loves other little munchkins like herself; and she loves Mommy and Daddy (the best thing ever)!
I feel so blessed to have Hazel as my daughter. That's an understatement. It's cliche, but it's true - she's the best thing that's ever happened to us. I couldn't ever imagine what it was going to be like to be a mom. It didn't seem real until we took her home from the hospital, and even then, I was skeptical. I felt and still feel so overwhelmed by the responsibility to raise this little angel. I just hope and pray everyday that I can be the mom she needs and deserves. The poor girl has to deal with James and me as new parents, trying everything for the first time. But hopefully she'll at least grow up knowing that we love her like crazy. I look at her several times a day and think, "Wow, she's my little girl." I love how Elder Jeffrey Holland refers to motherhood as "an eternal partnership with God." Thank goodness I'm not doing it on my own.
On Hazel's actual birthday, October 20th, I took her to her 12 month appointment, and it wasn't the best start of the day... note to self: never do that again. I don't know for whom is was more traumatizing though. After that, we went to the grocery store and got a birthday balloon! When she spotted the cage of balls, she about jumped out of the cart, so I let her pick out her favorite - a plain, lime green ball.

Later that day, we went to a park with no wood chips, but she was completely satisfied with the small rocks. Luckily she doesn't just eat anything she picks up anymore. What's funny is this girl would rather dig in the wood chips or rocks instead of swing.

After dinner, we put a candle in her banana yogurt (a favorite of hers) and sang her the birthday song!

We waited a week and a half for her birthday party because my side of the family was going to be in town for the BYU game at the Cowboys stadium. It was perfect weather for a party at the park! We took some pictures of our lil Hazel pumpkin a couple weeks before, so we went with a lil pumpkin theme for her party.

I can't decide which one's better... that one... or this one...

Poor little Hazel. Most of the pictures were like the latter. If only someone could've seen the jig I was doing behind the camera to try to get a smile. It also doesn't show the part where she got stuck the first time and we had to pry her out and cut bigger leg holes as well as the back of the pumpkin so she could slide in. Anyway, it was hard work but totally worth it!!

When I saw these glasses at the Party Store, I just had to get them for Hazel... especially since she kept them on her cute little face while shopping. Same thing at her party. Awesome. It's like she knew she was the star of the party and needed her rock star party glasses on.

I made a pumpkin flavored pumpkin cake for the big day. It could've looked less messy, but I left the icing of it until the last minute. It seems no one cared because there was no cake left over. As much as Hazel loves food, I expected her to devour her piece of cake. Apparently, she was more interested in the texture of it on her hands. She finally dug in after awhile.


We planned to decorate pumpkins, but the weather was so nice that we didn't get to it. The adults chit-chatted, the kids played on the playground, the guys played football, and everyone ate snacks here and there. We had apples and caramel dip, carrots, veggie chips, apple cinnamon sticks, and a fall chex mix for the party favors.

It was so great to have lots of family and friends there to celebrate Hazel's birthday. She's one loved little girl!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, SWEET HAZEL!

4 Year Anniversary!

Time really does fly! I take it as a good sign that our wedding seems as if it were yesterday. I love that quote that says, "If I had to choose again, I'd still choose you." I definitely feel that way about James. What a stud.

We were so lucky to have James home most of this week! We planned several dates that we wouldn't usually do, and enjoyed all our time together. It's so nice to have James's parents close so Hazel can hang out with them while we go out and play. Aside from a few house projects, we went to a fancy eat-in movie theater with recliner seats, blankets, and pillows; we went to the Dallas temple; we ate out a LOT (it was a good time for our oven to stop working, although it shorted just before I was about to bake James's favorite cookies); we spent time at the park; we got massages (ahh); and we had a fun night in as well. I picked up some spaghetti and recreated the dinner scene from Lady and the Tramp since that was James's favorite Disney movie when he was little. "Oh, thiiis is the niight...!" {singing} Hazel even got to enjoy some spaghetti and the movie a little bit before bedtime. I'm surprised James allowed her to eat spaghetti while he was in the same room. Messy, messy!

Here we are at the temple. It was bright, and no one was around to take the photo for us.

This was our night in...

...with Hazel and her 5 o'clock (red) shadow.

Here's to a billion more years! Lucky James.

Football Season

I've been ready for the fall for awhile now. Dallas set a record for the number of consecutive days that were over 100 degrees. Ugh. Today we went on a little walk though, and it was COOL! I could've put socks on my baby! With the fall comes football, which is so fun (as long as BYU and the Cowboys are winning). So far we've had some devastating losses, but we have hope for the next games! Hazel actually likes to watch football sometimes. This isn't the first time she has sported her BYU cheerleading uniform, but it actually fits her now. Aunt Natalie made her 2 cute BYU bows that will be used as pigtail bows ASAP! Her hair is growing quickly!

Jones and Hazel are so cute together. I think they look like brother and sister, but their mommas don't look a bit alike!

We also went to our nephew Austin's high school football game. He's a senior at Centennial, which is crazy because I feel like I was just a senior in high school! It was perfect weather for the game and we had a great time! Hazel especially loved the half time show. She even did a little dance for us.

Here she is with Grandma Palmer and Aunt Tami.

Waco Family Reunion

The whole Hayes clan gathered in Waco to celebrate all the August and September birthdays in our family. Hannah and Isaac already had a joint birthday party planned at the Waco water park, so we all partied there! Hazel loved the lazy river and being in her float.

Sometimes her legs get stuck in the float...

How cute are these two?

Here's sweet Miles!

Other than the issue of Hazel loudly resisting naptime, the weekend was lots of fun and relaxing. There were so many new things to look at and cousins to play with that Hazel hardly required entertainment from me.

Here's Cerra with Faith and Hazel. She's always willing to pick them up and help out!

Isaac is a total rough tough boy, so I think it's cute how sweet he is with Hazel.

We went to the children's museum while we were there and saw the Egyptian exhibit, which was great. I loved it because it reminded me of teaching 6th grade. Plus, Ancient Egypt has always intrigued me. We thought it'd be pretty cool if we could all fit on the camel for a picture... Success!


Our family also decided to do a little different activity this time. Each family member was supposed to choose a topic that we're passionate about and to share it with the rest of the family. We got the idea from our cousins' family reunion. It was fun to have a designated time for each of us to really get into something we love or think a lot about. We may have talked about these topics casually over the weekend, but we wouldn't have had a designated time to go in depth about it. I chose something related to cooking, of course! I demonstrated how to bake a delicious chocolate chip cookie. I think my topic was pretty popular because I had samples. =) Nat told us how to play Bunco, and we played that for our game night; Matt and Kylene joined together on theirs and related a little botany to spiritual life lessons; Angie educated us about sugar and how it's pretty much poison (that was hard to listen to after mine!), Dane talked to us about emergency preparedness, Mom talked about food storage and gave us all wheat grinders (awesome!), Jeff shared his thoughts on family, Dad shared a video and story about a family friend's miracle, and James talked about Dave Ramsey's book, Total Money Makeover. The kids participated by sharing one of their talents or interests. It was awesome! I bet this isn't the last time we'll do this as a family. Thanks, Nat and Jeff, for letting us trash your house all weekend! We had a blast! Next get-together - October 28th for the BYU vs. TCU game at the Cowboys' Stadium!

New Little Friends

In addition to Miles, we've made two more new friends these past few months -- Hailyn Malouf and Jaxon Robinson! Cutie pies! Hazel doesn't know how to react to them at this point, but I know that later they'll be great friends. Hazel is very happy and social, but she's also a bit rough so we have to watch her carefully when she's around babies. We're so excited to have new playmates! Congrats to Ben and Bri and to Shayla and Scott on your new little ones!

Hailyn and Hazel (Doesn't that sound cute?)

I'm holding sweet little Jax.

Our Little Girl

We can hardly get enough. Hazel is just growing up too fast! She's a little over 10 months, which means we're not far from her 1st birthday. Sad. My little baby is pulling up and trying to climb up on everything! I'm impressed by how fast she can crawl to get to something she wants (ie. food or other little people). She doesn't let me out of her sight very long, but it's kind of cute that she wants to be at my feet... literally. She'd rather I hold her all day, but a 23 lb. baby gets heavy after awhile. Sometimes I try to sneak in the other room quickly to get a drink or something, but she always knows... pretty soon I hear a pitter patter on the floor as she speed crawls after me. The best is when I'm at the stove or sink and she pulls up and pushes her head between my legs so I can't move anywhere. She's a determined little baby who knows what she wants! The best thing that's happened this past month is we're all getting good sleep! A full night's sleep feels AMAZING!! I still rock her for her naps and nighttime, but I try not to do it until she's completely out. It's hard to completely let that go. I don't know that I'll be able to do that with another child, so I'll hold on to that until she doesn't want to be rocked anymore. The only problem is Hazel's getting a little big to cuddle on me. I'll make it work though!

Here's one of my favorite pictures of her recently. How we didn't end up with that bear in our cart as we left, I don't know.

One of the first things she crawled up on was her little rocking chair that used to be her Grandma Palmer's.

Here's Hazel with some of her cousins -- other little people like herself! She loves them!

The only show on TV that Hazel has noticed is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She bounces when she hears the song. I don't mind a little Disney in my day!

I painted Hazel's toes for the first time in her high chair. It was a challenge but worth it!

One of Hazel's favorite things to do is to take a bath. Her cousin Ty let her have his bath seat, so now she can sit up in the tub!

We love going to the library for Rhyme Time, but Hazel's favorite thing is bubbles.
The Basil's hair is getting thicker and longer and sometimes when she wakes up from a nap, it's a wee bit curly at the ends. How cute is her bob?


Like her mama, her favorite thing is food. She loves feeding herself and making a huge mess! Now that she has 4 visible teeth (2 on top, 2 on bottom), it's so cute to hear the crunch when she eats.

Birthday Boy!

My man finally caught up to me! He's 27, too! James got Friday and Monday off for his birthday (his actual b-day was Tuesday though), so we enjoyed a long weekend together. It's so fun to have him home during the day, and I know Hazel loves seeing her daddy more too. For his main birthday celebration, we went to the new Top Golf in Allen and had a blast! Shayla was my girl company, so we just chatted and ate while we cheered on the boys. It's a fun atmosphere, and I think everyone had a great time! Then some of us went to James's parents' for some pool ball and cookie cake, which tasted better than it looked (I'm talking about my decorations). Thank you, Emeril, for a yummy recipe! This is the recipe, but I just used chocolate chips instead of all the other toppings. James loooves a good chocolate chip cookie, so what's better than a giant chocolate chip cookie for his birthday?! On Monday, my sister-in-law Tami watched Hazel while we went to see the last Harry Potter movie. We loved it! Then for dinner, we went to Benihana with my in laws since we had 2 free birthday dinners! I thought Hazel would be scared of the experience, but she did great! Here's a little photo report:

Top Golf Group
(I wasn't trying to be artsy with this photo... my camera messed it up.)

James's birthday gift - a Kindle.